Crown Prince affirms Saudi Arabia’s leading role in development of African countries

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Saudi Arabia affirmed its pioneering role in advancing development in the countries of the African continent and its support for international and regional efforts, in cooperation with the African Union, to lay the foundations of security, stability, and conflict resolution.

The Kingdom also affirmed its support for international efforts in combating terrorist groups and extremism for each of the Sahel and Saharan countries, combating terrorism, improving the security capabilities of those countries, and the importance of development and the promotion of investment in them.

This came during Saudi Arabia's speech delivered virtually by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the Summit on Financing African Economies, held in Paris.

“This summit confirms the great concern for the future of the African continent, its states, and peoples, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has no borders and touched all aspects of daily life and people around the world. The impact of the pandemic has been severe in low-income African countries, where it increased the financing gap needed to achieve sustainable development goals. We must continue to exert efforts to overcome this crisis through joint international action,” the Crown Prince said.

He pressed on the most urgent matter, which is to ensure the rapid and fair global distribution of vaccines, especially in low-income countries in Africa and the rest of the world, which contributes to stopping the spread and returning economic activity to normal as soon as possible.

“From this standpoint, the initiative to accelerate the availability of tools to combat the virus and the COVAX Facility to make vaccines available is an important achievement. Saudi Arabia is one of the donating countries to the initiative. The program still needs more support to achieve its goals effectively,” Prince Mohammed added.

He also noted that Saudi Arabia played a pioneering role in advancing development in the African continent countries. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) has a number of projects in energy, mining, telecommunications, and food sectors amounting to SAR 15 billion ($4 billion). The PIF intends to continue efforts to search for investment opportunities in the African continent, whether directly or indirectly, in other countries and sectors.

The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) is operating effectively in Africa for four decades, during which it provided loans and 580 grants to more than 45 African countries with a value exceeding SAR 50 billion ($13.5 billion). It also announced an initiative of SAR 1 billion, to develop the Sahel countries in partnership with the French Development Agency.

The Kingdom has future projects, loans, and grants that the SFD will implement in developing countries in Africa exceeding SAR 3 billion ($1 billion) during the current year.

Saudi Arabia supports international and regional efforts in close cooperation with the African Union to lay the foundations of security, stability, and conflict resolution, including the historic Jeddah Peace Agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Crown Prince added.

“The Kingdom provided support of nearly SAR 500 million, for efforts to combat terrorism and improve the security capabilities of these countries,” he said.

“We are now working with our partners in the Southern African Development Community (SADAC), foremost among which is South Africa, to support the capabilities of the security forces in Mozambique to confront extremist groups to lay the foundations for security, stability, and economic development,” he continued.

“The Kingdom's positions also affirmed the importance of development in the African countries and the promotion of investment in it. We look forward to holding the Saudi-African Summit and the Arab-African Summit soon, which was postponed due to the pandemic,” the Crown Prince concluded.